Indian ice cream—a gift from the land
At the August vision fast at Monkey Valley, the spot where our council circle met had some translucent reddish-orange berries that looked very succulent. I licked one and found it to be very bitter. The faster asked what they were, but I didn’t know, and didn’t even recall seeing this type of berry before. After the faster went out on her two-day quest, I looked up the berries in Roberta Parish, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd’s Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. I discovered they are soapberries. I remembered that my friend Pam told me soapberries are the stuff Indian ice cream is made of.
While the faster was out, my co-guide Kim Ashley (a 
different Kim than my sister, Kim Rempel) and I decided to try making the ice cream. We gathered the berries in the traditional method, by spreading a cloth on the ground and then beating the bush with a stick! (Following the instructions in Nancy Turner’s Food Plants of Interior First Peoples.) But we used electric beaters, not so traditional, to whip the berries with a little water into a beautiful pink foam. We didn’t have the traditional whipping implement—a piece of cedar bark—on hand. The mixture was still quite bitter even with brown sugar and a few wild raspberries added. An unusual but interesting taste. The whipped foamy texture is wonderful—a real treat.
This treat was part of the welcome-back-break-fast feast. It was really neat, to offer the faster some food gathered from the land. It strengthened the feeling that the spirits of this place welcome us doing the old sacred ceremonies here. Ho!
Recipe
Mix 1 cup berries with 1/4 cup water and 4 tablespoons brown sugar, until all the berries have dissolved into a stiff pink foam.
When I lived in the Rockies I would smoosh these berries through a sieve, mix with some water and maple syrup to make a refreshing drink. I loved it so much! Other people thought I was nuts, but they never once tried it.
Do soapberries grow anywhere on the lower mainland? I’ve kept my eye out but never seen any.
Hi Jen, I don’t think you’re nuts! I know how refreshing soapberries can be on a hot day. Great idea to mix them with maple syrup!
Here’s a tip from David Suzuki on using soapberries to do your laundry:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/cleaning/what-are-%20soap-nuts/?gclid=CMjqzvz3zLYCFYU5Qgodzi4Asg
This Wikipedia entry on the soapberry, soopolallie, or buffaloberry says they are available in the Thompson, Lillooet, and Shuswap regions, and used by the First Nations peoples in these areas. Another article mentions Nepal. So I think they must require a higher elevation and drier climate than the lower mainland. I’ve never seen them around here. If you ever do, please let me know!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Buffaloberry
Thanks for writing!
Warmly,
Karen
Dear Karen,
My Granddaughters are very caught up in the old traditions and they told me to use shlala twigs that have been tied together like a wilderness whisk. Just strip the leaves and rinse well and then bind. What a wonderful wilderness lesson.
Thanks for your recipe.
Dayle
Dear Dayle,
Thank you for sharing the tip about the shlala twigs. Do you mean to use the whisk to knock the soapberries off the branches? Or just for general use as a whisk? Also, I don’t know which tree is the shlala. Does it have another name?
Thanks very much for writing.
Warmly,
Karen
I grew up on this stuff, and aside from the medicinal cleansing purposes of the juices, it is bitter as hell and unless there’s a substantial amount of sugar added, I rarely enjoy the taste. LOL. I am a Shuswap woman so we enjoy this treat frequently.
Hi Dezerae,
The berries grow all along the east fenceline of my property. They are very refreshing on a hot summer day while doing fence repairs! But the first time I ate one I couldn’t believe how bitter it was! They take some getting used to. 🙂 Thanks for writing.
Warmly,
Karen
Hi Kristina,
I’m glad to hear the recipe is helpful! I bet it does taste good with ice cream.
Good luck on your report.
Best wishes,
Karen
i made this and it tastes very well with home made ice cream!
i am makeing this because i have a report to do on aboriginal people